A variety of pressing mats, ironing boards, ironing pads and ironing board covers are available to provide individuals a means to press clothing, materials, and other items using a conventional iron. Many of these items are designed to allow items to be pressed in the home or on travel. Some of these items are specifically designed to be used in connection with quilting or other similar crafts.
In forming a quilt, it is common for multiple elements of fabric to be sewed or stitched together to create intricate patterns of material. Before sewing or stitching the elements, it is preferable to press such elements to ensure that the elements are properly sized and fitted together.
It is also desirable that the element being ironed be restrained so that the pressing operation may be performed quickly, easily, and thoroughly. In some routine household applications, the material being ironed is large enough that a restraint is not required to conduct the ironing process. For example, when a large piece of fabric such like a bed sheet is ironed, sufficient material is usually present to allow an individual to manually restrain the fabric by hand. However, in many crafting applications, the element being pressed is often so small in size or irregularly shaped that restraint of the item by hand is cumbersome. In these applications, it would be advantageous to have a simple means to restrain the element so that it can be pressed quickly, thoroughly, easily, and efficiently. To that end, it is desirable to have a pressing mat with the capability to restrain small and/or odd shaped elements of material desired to be pressed.
Some individuals enjoy crafting at home as well as on travel or have a limited work area available. Accordingly, it would be desirable for a pressing mat utilized for crafting applications to be portable and relatively small. Therefore, a small and lightweight pressing mat that provides a means to restrain the items being pressed would be advantageous in many applications.
It would also be advantageous for a pressing mat to have a self-restraining capability for use on hard surfaces, such as table tops and counter tops. This feature would be advantageous because it would increase the versatility of the pressing mat and allow for use in a variety of areas in the home and on travel.
It is also desirable that a pressing mat be easy and inexpensive to manufacture. To that end, it is desirable that a pressing mat be made from materials that are readily available, inexpensive, and simple to process.
It is also desirable that a pressing mat be capable of use with a standard ironing board assembly. This capability would enable users the option of implementing the unique features and benefits of a pressing mat on a standard ironing board to which they are accustomed.
Information relevant to attempts to address these problems can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,793,991 B2, 4,360,984, 4,043,062, 5,386,654, 4,621,003, 7,131,223 B2, and 5,355,599, and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0216337. However, each one of these references suffers from one or more of the following disadvantages: they fail to provide a means to restrain the elements of fabric being ironed, they require the use of conventional ironing boards, they are not portable, they are not manufactured from readily available materials, they lack the capability to be self-restraining, or they are not easily manufactured. For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a pressing mat that restrains elements of fabric being pressed, is portable, may be used integrally with a standard ironing board, is capable of restraining itself, and is easy to manufacture.